


Healing

by Diggy



Series: Elise and Malroth Collection [3]
Category: Dragon Quest Builders (Video Games)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Sex, F/M, Healing, Sex, Smut, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 03:07:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21047285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diggy/pseuds/Diggy
Summary: “Malroth,” she called his name gently and his focus snapped back to her eyes and off her ugly markings. Elise smiled sadly and cupped his face in her hands. He kissed her palm for a moment then let her guide him in for a real kiss. It was slow and sweet and Elise could taste sleep in the kiss but she knew he wanted this and she wouldn’t deny it because she did as well.Maybe this was all a part of healing too?





	Healing

**Author's Note:**

> Diggy does not own the rights or royalties to any recognizable characters or story elements. All characters are presumed over the age of 18 years or older in every work of fanfiction wether mentioned in story or not.
> 
> [Female builder = Elise]
> 
> Now grab a box of tissues and a nice cold drink and buckle in, folks. It's gonna be a good one.

The first time was clumsy. They’d stumbled and tripped and a couple of times Malroth questioned whether or not Elise was going to stop the fun halfway through because he wasn’t sure he was doing anything right.

But then she’d made those faces and sighed with those noises and he felt her tremble and coil when they finally connected and that look in her eye reassured him that there was something very  _ right _ about the way they mixed.

Still. At least once they bumped and stumbled and they’d nearly fallen out of bed. He came too early but that wasn’t exactly a surprise but Elise had to give him credit because it was still a million times better than her last experience.

And the aftermath...the feeling of his skin on hers and the taste of her flesh on his tongue and his sweat blended with hers was something incredible.

And then the world had fallen apart. They’d traveled to Moonbrooke where no privacy could be found. Still they managed to find one corner one night where their hands wandered briefly and Malroth discovered it was positively enthralling to watch her curl around his fingers and whisper words of love in his ear.

But...it didn’t last. They crumbled. He felt  _ betrayed. _ Just as everything wanted to get better it all got worse.

Only some time later after their made up world became a reality did they find each other again. But they were different people now, and there were so many words left unspoken so beside the fact that they couldn’t rest without the other nearby there was still  _ something _ missing.

He hadn’t touched her since. Not in the way that made her breath catch and her body light up.

She hadn’t kissed him yet. Not in the way that promised something deeply personal and begged for more than just a taste.

They hadn’t. At all.

And the longer they waited, the further they felt. 

Maybe it was all a part of healing?

  
  


* * *

Malroth’s heart was pounding, thundering—racing with the force of a bomb, so loud and powerful his body shook with the beat.

_ She couldn’t be. _

“Elise!” He felt the darkness sink in and world going black. She bled from her mouth, she was icy cold, her eyes half open but she remained still despite how hard he shook her.

“Come on,” his voice faltered, he pulled her to his chest and her body was lifeless and limp in his arms.

_ You killed me… _

His eyes burned, his throat closed.

“Elise, please…” her held her so tight and squeezed his eyes and everything burned in a raging acidic bath so powerful and painful he couldn’t breathe. “Please,” he begged.

Malroth awoke with a tightness in his chest and his throat held shut by his own inner demons. He gasped and shook but the breath wouldn’t come and his body was on fire, it felt as if the air pressed down on him tightly from all directions.

But then his eyes caught her. She was right beside him, loose red curls over her rosey cheek, her hand warm on his arm, fingers holding him for security.

The tightness lessened and Malroth took a breath. He focused on  _ her _ . Her chest rose slowly and fell at the same pace. Her breath was even, careful, and measured. She was at peace.

Malroth exhaled with a shiver and closed his eyes.

_ He didn’t. _

_ He hadn’t. _

Elise mumbled something in her sleep and Malroth’s red eyes snapped open, honing in on her like she was a target. Her face scrunched and her nose bunched and he wondered if she had the nightmares too.

But she didn’t wake and her hand loosened on his arm and Malroth felt as if the room was all too small all at once so he slipped from her grip and carefully off the tiny mattress and crossed the room as silently as he could into the dark night outside.

Elise hadn’t noticed Malroth was such a light sleeper before the events of Moonbrooke and later Malhalla. Sure, he was usually up long before her. She credited it to the fact that he was usually soundly asleep long before her as well.

But ever since their return from Malhalla and maybe even some time before that she’d noticed changes. He didn’t sleep before her, yet he was always up long before her. When she woke from a dark memory he was already awake and there to reassure her of her safety, yet she knew he was plagued with nightmares of his own and he never once needed her for reassurance. She was wondering if he ever slept at all.

She noticed something else too. Despite the fact that he lay next to her every night and he was always within eyesight since their return there was something distant growing between them. It was as if the closer they got the further they were. 

_ She missed her best friend. _ It hurt her like a sore that had festered and rotted and worsened over time until it became a black poison that encompassed her very soul. The memory of their falling out in Moonbrooke seemed like a plague that remained resilient despite the time that passed and it made her ache and sore in her very muscles and bones with how much she wished it all undone — how much she wished to have him back.

Elise woke that cold morning to find it wasn’t morning at all and the bed beside her empty. She sat up slowly and felt her joints creek and complain with the lack of rest. She ran her hand on the mattress and felt her heart sink with how cold it was. She knew what it meant but simultaneously didn’t know why.

_ Did he still not forgive her? _

Elise looked outside the dark window to find the night moonless and the stars beginning to fade with the forthcoming rise of dawn.

Elise was pulling back the covers and feeling the cold air on her skin before she’d even given her mind a chance to argue with her heart. Her feet were cold on the wood flooring but she didn’t find her slippers and pulled the blanket on the bed more tightly around her shoulders as she crossed the room quietly and carefully as if she didn’t want to disturb the peace around her.

The door creaked faintly and the air was much colder outside than in. Yet the air had a sweetness to it from the gardens and fields nearby but Elise didn’t notice it. She looked around the wintery night but found the grassy paths empty and silent.

Elise frowned and felt a tightness once more take hold of her chest.

“Up here.”

The familiar voice wafted from above and Elise glanced up with a skip of heart to find the familiar silhouette beck lit by the glow of the torches beyond him. Malroth sat at the edge of the wooden roofing, legs crossed beneath him and shoulders hunched.

Elise wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination or really her vision but she could have sworn she saw the dark rings under his eyes even from the floor she stood on.

“You should go inside,” Malroth’s voice started strong but seemed to fade by the end of the sentence. “It’s cold.” The last words were barely a weak whisper.

Elise shivered. She didn’t like being told what to do, from  _ him _ of all people. But despite her usual people-pleaser personality that would gladly take requests without much question, she felt the pull to resist this time around and made her way to the ladder leading up to the roof instead.

Malroth watched her silently as she climbed to the top and never let his eyes shift away until she made her way to him and took a seat beside. Her legs dangled off the edge of the roof and she rested her weight on a hand flat beside her just far enough from his to keep their distance.

Malroth noticed the space and a mere inch had never felt so far before. Still, he said nothing and eventually just looked back out over the mountains without any give.

Elise hugged the blanket closer around her with her other hand and felt him pull away so she made the decision to speak first.

“Did you sleep?” It was a lame excuse of an opening but it made her point clear. Malroth didn’t look at her or glance away. Instead he shrugged distantly and responded with the single syllable, “Some.”

It was cold.

Detached.

“You know if you’re having-“ she tried to start again but Malroth cut her off.

“I’m fine.” Even his tone gave away the reality. Elise reached out a hand to his arm and Malroth shook and pulled away the moment they touched as if her attempt alone burned him on contact.

“No,” he pulled away and shifted himself a step further, increasing the space between them but providing little conversation.

Elise huffed.

_ Now or never. _

“Malroth,” she began with the full intent to pull him closer and open conversation.

“Don’t.”

The pain that rose with that one single word came so unexpectedly it was as if he’d physically reached out and shoved her square in the chest with all his might. Elise’s mouth hung slightly ajar but she felt the breathe pulled right out of her lungs. He refused to look at her, but she could see his eye beginning to redden around the white and his skin turning pink and she wondered how much he was holding back.

She didn’t speak at first. Elise found it impossible to formulate the words that could possibly do him any good but the longer she stared the further he seemed and a heaviness was growing deep in her chest as she wondered how deep his scars ran.

“Malroth…” Elise started the name softly and watched him physically wince and squeezed his eyes shut so tightly she imagined white stars forming in his eyes. “You know I love you, right?”

He breathed in harshly but it shook with his restraint.

She could see him trembling. Something from within beginning to wrack over his body, threatening to give like an earthquake and tear him down like a mighty tower falling to the earth. She did the only thing she could think of.

Elise shifted over closer to him, pulled his face to her and with his eyes still painful tight kissed him like it was the only thing she could do to reach him.

It was soft and slow and tentative but something lingered with a soft tingling on her lips that told her there were so many more words left unspoken.

Elise took a shaken breath that trembled on his lip but she didn’t pull away and Malroth read her tremble as a desire for more. He gently pulled her closer with one arm between the blanket and her back and the other tentatively on her knee.

Then he hesitated. He didn’t pull away but something faltered and paused and she felt it clearly and it was such a foreign sensation for the man that never once hesitated in all the time she’d known him.

Elise reached out with one hand letting the blanket fall off her shoulder and gently touched the side of his face. She felt him lean into her palm and his eyes pressed closed and something seemed to crack beneath her touch.

“Malroth…” she had to know.

“Don’t.” His voice cracked, he shivered just once but she felt it. The brick wall between them beginning to give, it’s foundation splitting with a crack and threatening to crumble all at once. “I can’t,” he gave a watery, shaken breath and it pained her deeply, slicing through her heart like a molten blade.

Malroth pulled away but she wouldn’t let him this time and pushed herself closer, grabbed him tightly and held his face close to hers until he covered her hand with his and she felt his tremble with the swell of all the guilt and emotion that had built and pressurized over the course of the past few months.

“Malroth,” she whispered his name again and he  _ shook _ with something powerful. “Please tell me.”

He said it so low she barely heard it at all.

_ “I killed you.” _

Malroth gasped and then all at once he went from eerily quiet and detached to pulling her so tightly to him it was as if she was the only thing keeping him tethered to the world. She let him and she held him as it all flooded out at once, the months of pain and the admittance of guilt that didn’t even register to her the ramifications of such visions. The more he cried the worse she felt because it wasn’t about him blaming her or not forgiving what she did, but about him not trusting himself. He was blaming himself for something he’d never done at all yet felt so real he harbored the guilt deep inside as if it were and admission.

_ “I watched you die, and it was  _ me _ . It was my fault. I killed you with my own hands.” _

Elise couldn’t breathe. He cried into her shoulder and his fingers dug so tightly into her arms they physically hurt and she knew it would bruise but she couldn’t move at all because he was in so much pain who was she to complain of something so minute?

So she held him tight and didn’t let go even when her arms grew number and her back sore from staying like that she refused to lesson her grip on him for fear he’d fall to pieces without her there.

And it felt like it lasted forever.

But it felt like it ended too quickly too because in reality it wasn’t enough at all. She knew it. She knew from the way he still held her tightly and hid his face in her shoulder and gripped her so close it stung that he still had so much more healing to do.

She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came. Her words were empty and there were none to be found. What did one say in a situation like this?

Malroth spoke so softly she almost thought she imagined it herself. His voice was faint, soft,  _ weak. _

_ “I killed you.” _

No.

She finally pushed him away but he refused to look at her and kept his eyes now red all over tightly closed so instead she brought him back with a hand on either side of his face and gave him a kiss so powerful and forceful he forgot to cry halfway through and went numb in her hands by the time she parted to breath.

She didn’t dare open her eyes.

_ One of use needs to be strong right now. _

“You know I love you right?” She repeated her words from prior and felt his whole body shake with a pained inhale.

_ I killed you. _

“And I know you still love me too,” she continued on when he didn’t speak and kissed him again despite his stone cold resilience. “I love you  _ so much.” _

Finally he moved.

Malroth pulled her closer but lost his balance and toppled them over until she was on her back on the roof but even still he kissed her with months of repressed emotion all thrown into the one kiss. It came so powerfully and suddenly it pulled the breathe out of her lungs and replaced with his in one full swoop and left her dizzy and light, heavy and weightless all at once until she couldn’t tell where he began and she ended but it didn’t matter because she wanted to melt into him,  _ absorb _ some of his pain just to lessen his load.but she couldn’t, so she chose instead to kiss him back with as much power as she could until he wasn’t crying anymore and his breath was heavy from the pain but heavy because his lips were swollen from all the emotion she pulled from his kiss.

He softened. His grip loosened but he kept her close. His cheek dried and she chose instead to stroke the side of his face. Malroth turned his head without opening his eyes and planted a kiss tenderly in her palm.

It was so sweet and delicate Elise felt her heart flutter. So she pulled him back against and kissed him once more.

It was a different kiss. It begun similarly but somewhere in the half muddled promises she repeated it grew warmer and closer and his hands slid lower on her body until she felt the cold of the night air and warmth of his skin against hers.

And she realized she wanted something else. She wanted  _ him _ . Not just this part, but  _ all _ parts.

“Malroth?” She muffled his name into his kiss but he parted enough ugh just to let her speak. “Take me back to bed.”

Finally he opened his eyes.

They met hers and Elise watched in wonder as a thousand words flooded in his gaze, and she understood it all and responded with just a slow nod.

It took him a minute to move, but when he finally did it all seemed to happen in slow motion.

Malroth stood carefully and took her by the hand. She smiled at him wordlessly and felt her heart flutter When corner of his lips just barely moved. He pulled her gently towards the ladder only releasing her hand when he began the trek down then waiting for her at the bottom again, helping her off the ladder not like she was fragile and needed it herself, but like he needed her touch to keep him grounded. 

Then she led the way. Elise pulled him by the hand and when she reached her bedroom door she pulled him close until she was sandwiched between him and the door and she kissed him with a newfound heat and promise that outlined exactly what she wanted.

So they made their way inside, and she pulled him along with her until they stood before her bed and only then did he pause.

But she didn’t let him second guess it. She instead kissed him again and pulled him close and let her hands begin to undo the buttons of his pajama shirt. When they all popped open and she finally slid her hands up the lines and curves of his chest she felt him sigh into her mouth and felt her courage build to continue.

She pulled him slowly until the back of his legs bumped into the bed and Malroth stumbled and lost his balance and toppled backward onto the mattress pulled her with him and finally she laughed and felt him smile and it was the most beautiful thing she’d felt since the end of their adventure.

“I love you,” she whispered it not as encouragement but reassurance. She wanted to say it again, say it ten thousand times until he forgot all those horrific images he’d seen and only remembered the sound of her voice repeating those words to him.

“I love you,” she spoke again and kissed his chest down his sternum and over his heart. “I love you,” she repeated once more with her lips now over his stomach. Her hands dipped into the elastic of his pants and she kissed the faint line of hair beneath his navel and felt the muscles under his skin flinch under her touch. Malroth’s breath grew heavy and longer but he shifted his hips and gently dug his fingers of one hand into her hair and the other arm slung over his eyes and the next time he felt her lips it was completely uncharted territory for both of them and he choked with the warmth of her mouth and gentle grip of her hand around his hardness because it was just the right kind of grip and felt so perfect it left him... _ delirious _ .

Elise was emboldened by the sounds he made and the way he grew and thickened in her hand and the heat radiating off his skin. She’d barely touched him and yet he was already so close she watched his head, swollen and hard just barely dribble and the thought came to her without precursor or warning so instead of throwing caution to the wind she ran on instinct and took his head into her mouth and gave him the faintest swirl of her tongue.

He cried something quite loud and powerful, luckily muffled by his arm still over his face but loud enough to tell her  _ exactly _ how good it felt so she did it again and took him just a little deeper and gripped his base with her hand and felt him twitch with warning of an impending release. But she let it cheer her on and instead of pulling back she took him further still until she nearly choked herself but the sounds he was making and the way his body shook was something so powerful and unhinged she watched mesmerized as he let himself completely crumble under her touch.

Elise pulled him out of her mouth just as she felt him twitch and stroked him with her hand closed around him and…

His release came abruptly and loudly with a cry similar to before but so different at the same time. 

He spurted and oozed but she watched him wither and shake the entire time and felt her heart swell because of the significance of letting himself go and be vulnerable around her.

And it didn’t last long before he went limp and left a mess in his wake with heavy breaths as if he’d run across the entire island and his chest rose and fell harshly with a thunderous heart racing in his chest. 

Elise smiled and wiped her hands on the bedsheet before wiping tenderly at the mess on his skin. She kissed the cleaner expanses of flesh she found up his stomach then his chest, and she was halfway up when he grabbed her with his hands and she laughed just as he brought her up and smashed her mouth to his in a sloppy, watery kiss that by the end of they both were crying with laughter because it was messy and ridiculous but left them lighthearted and full of happiness until it burst from them at the seams in glowing light.

Malroth pushed a red curl behind her ear and Elise smiled wider before another kiss. Finally feeling him calm she curled her body beside his and let him pull her close with and arm.

Her hand rested just above his heart. She could faintly feel it’s powerful beat under the layers of skin and muscle and bone. She liked it.

“I will never let anyone hurt you,” he spoke into the top of her head. Elise smiled and looked up just in time for him to kiss her again.

It was gentler this time. Softer. Warmer.

“I’ll never hurt you again.”

Elise inhaled shakily.

_ You never hurt me before, _ she thought to herself. She wanted to say it out loud but instead just kissed him once more.

She didn’t need to say the words. He didn’t need to hear them. He needed to  _ know _ them.

Malroth kept her close until his breathing was back to normal and the cold of the winter air licked his flesh.

“Let’s get some sleep?” Elise asked him figuring he was getting sleepy.

The idea of holding her close all night was appealing. But there were still things left undone and words left unspoken. Malroth sat up and Elise smiled, folding her elbow at an angle and holding her head up as she admired him.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. His red eyes slightly puffy and pink on the lids from crying earlier. Hers were warm and soft, full of adoration.

Malroth licked his lips and Elise felt herself bite her lip on instinct. It made him smile and her as well in turn.

She knew that smile.

Malroth moved forward, putting one knee on the other side of her thighs and an arm at either die of her shoulders until he was hovering over her and looking down at her like she was his prey and he a starved predator.

It made her breath tremble because she knew what it meant and the intensity only doubled when she nodded slowly.

Malroth kissed her softly at first then a little more forcibly, letting his tongue side into her mouth and tasting his own skin on her tongue. His right hand moved to her side, slowly sliding up her body and pulling the cotton of her pajama with it until it bunched over her chest and Elise giggled. She pulled back and let him tug it over her head and fling it over her shoulder with the softest sound as it disappeared to the ground.

“I love you too,” he mumbled before lowering his face to her chest and lightly giving a pink little nipple a delicate lick. 

Elise released the faintest tremble and laughed, so the next time he licked he let his teeth lightly tug on the pert little peak and felt her back arch off the mattress.

_ “Malroth,”  _ she whispered her name into the air like a prayer and dug her fingers into his hair. She tugged and pulled and the more she felt his teeth graze her flesh, the stronger she pulled.

So the next time he bit, he bit harder until she hissed and he released her thinking he’d hurt her until the sound was followed by a delicious moan and he knew it was the right kind of sting.

“I love you too,” he told her again as his hands dipped into the waistband of her shorts and tugged lightly, bringing the fabric over her hips. Elise laughed at the ridiculous of it all but lifted her hips so he could pull them down her thighs and over her legs.

They fell to the ground behind him and Elise bit the top of her thumb, watching him as he looked over her body a moment.

Scars. She had a lot of scars and some bruises and bumps. He hated seeing them. She remembered the last time they’d been intimate. He’d touched each one, kissing and caressing the marks, willing them to heal even if they didn’t immediately but wishing he could take all the pain away. 

“Malroth,” she called his name gently and his focus snapped back to her eyes and off her ugly markings. Elise smiled sadly and cupped his face in her hands. He kissed her palm for a moment then let her guide him in for a real kiss. It was slow and sweet and Elise could taste sleep in the kiss but she knew he wanted this and she wouldn’t deny it because she did as well.

Maybe this was all a part of healing too?

Malroth kissed her neck and shoulder, running his nose over her collar and feeling her hands rake through his hair and her breath catch as his thumb looped in the waist of her panties.

“Can I?” He asked her in a heavy breath and she nodded, pulling him closer to her neck but lifting her hip just enough for him to slide the thin material down her thighs.

They separated for a moment for Malroth to finish the removal of the last garment and then he stared at her again.

Here they were. Both naked. Both in pain, different and the same all at once. Elise had never seen Malroth hesitate in all the time she’d known him and yet as he stood there in all his glory he still looked uncertain. 

Trepidation. He had a face of trepidation. Not like he didn’t trust her or want to be with her but like he was nervous trusting himself. He still didn’t trust his own self.

It pained Elise’s heart to think about what darkness he still had to heal from.

“Malroth,” she whispered his name softly and he looked her in the eyes but he still didn’t move. She decided if this was ever going to happen she’d need to be the one to instigate.

Elise stood slowly, her eyes never leaving his and he never once looking away. She moved up to him until she was so close, her breasts pressed against his chest and she could feel his breath on her lips. She laced the fingers of one hand with one of his and pulled him towards her.

She backed up until the mattress pressed against her legs and Elise maneuvered them gently until Malroth was sitting on the bed, legs stretched out just watching her like the smallest touch could break her.

She didn’t like the feeling, but Elise had never understood why he did the things he did until he admitted what he’d seen in Malhalla.

_ Seen _ . It was more than just what he  _ saw _ because the way he’d described it, it sounded as if it had actually  _ happened. _ Elise wasn’t quite sure what that meant nor was she certain she wanted to know. Either way it’d left him with deep emotional wounds and the only thing that would heal them was time and patience. Luckily for both of them, she was a stubborn woman.

Elise put one knee over his legs straddling his lap and smiling at him before taking his face in both her hands and giving him a kiss that made his mind go hazy and thoughts vague. She felt him circle his arms around her, bend at the knees and press her closer until it felt as if her body would melt into his if he let her.

“You know I love you, right?” She mouthed the words into his kiss and he felt emboldened by them, even giving her lip a playful tug before responding. He shifted his weight and something hot and  _ hard _ rubbed her where she was slick and warm and it made the breath shudder in her throat. Elise raised her hips just a few inches and reached her hand down between their bodies until Malroth’s breath caught and he choked on air and let his mouth fall slightly ajar because  _ by goddess... _

Elise gave him one tentative stroke and he twitched in her hand and drowned his groan into her open mouth with a sloppy kiss.

Elise shifted and pulled him close and suddenly he was  _ there _ . Right where she was slick and warm and in dire need of attention. It made her hold her breath and her eyes connected with his while his hands gripped her hips because he didn’t  _ dare _ move before he needed to.

“I love you.” She sunk down him torturously slow and Elise watched his eyes roll and his mouth fall open as he tried with all his might not to fall apart at the seams because…

_ “Goddess,”  _ Elise moaned softly with her hands on the back of his head and body trembling with the delicious stretch that only came with the most intimate connection two people could make.  _ “Malroth,”  _ his name was half a whisper and half a prayer she didn’t dare shift or move for fear of ruining the moment.

Malroth remained still himself. He was lost in the feeling of her body tightly wound around him and squeezing him deliciously and the warmth of her skin on his and  _ her smell. _ Her  _ smell _ was  _ intoxicating. _

Elise kissed him once on the lips, then down his jaw, under the base of his ear and down his neck. “Are you okay?” She pressed the words like promises into his skin, one syllable at a time. Malroth hummed a low sound in his throat and tightened his hands on her back.

Finally, he opened his eyes and met gaze and the world seemed to come to a standstill.

He nodded.

Elise slowly raised her hips her breath shaking in her throat as he slid slowly out from her warmth before she let her weight sink back down and her entire body trembled with the moan she released.

_ Goddess be. _

Malroth made a noise that was somewhere between the cry and a choke but his hands tightened on her hips, fingers sinking deeper into her flesh and slowly gliding her up again and pulling her down as they built a slow rhythm.

Words didn’t form as their bodies moved but the more she moved the stronger he held her and the more powerful each push and pull tugged at her core and swelled with some immeasurable pressure building in her gut.

“ _ Malroth,”  _ Elise gasped with toes curled and fingers digging into his back. He was beginning to lose the steady rhythm, moving faster and shifting sloppily until all she heard was the wet squelch of her body taking his in and the groans he made each time he pulled her down onto his lap. 

“Fuck,” she cried and clenched with the world fading and his breath eachoing in her ears. She tried to focus on him, focus on the sound of his breathing and the feel on his skin and the breathe she tasted each time she lifted her hips and he held his breath...

Everything seemed to burst in brilliant light all at once or perhaps it was just her eyes rolling in the back of her head. Elise vaguely felt her mouth open and barely registered the sound of a half swallowed groan as she trembled and shook and the pressure building up just flooded out all at once.

And then she was still. Her nails digging into his back, faint red crescents in their wake, skin on skin with a dust of sweat to catch the faint light filtering in the window curtains.

Malroth’s breath was heavy and hard and it echoed the thunderous beat of his heart in his chest. She could almost feel it against her chest. She could almost feel how tightly he held it.

Elise’s entire body seemed to tingle with electricity, from the tips of the sweaty strands of hair to the nails on her toes, feet growing numb under her weight and creeping up her legs until she couldn’t feel her knees.

But she didn’t dare move. She didn’t  _ dare _ shatter the moment.

Her fingers gently raked the sweaty hair at the back of his neck and she smiled when she felt him place a tender kiss on her collar. Her breath slowed to a more normal rhythm and her skin cooled and only then did she register how quiet it was.

How  _ peaceful. _

“Malroth?” Her voice was barely a whisper and he made the faintest movement to tell her he’d heard her. His entire body felt that of a thousand pounds. She let herself have a quiet chuckle before finally pulling away from him.

The air was cold and it was beginning to sting but Elise paid it no notice, lost instead in the quiet untangling of her limbs from his and the way his breath faltered when she let him slide out of her body.

She swallowed feeling the remnants of his release dripping from her thighs but didn’t comment on it. Malroth barely reached the sheet tossed to the side and Elise helped him wipe up some poodles and spots that she noticed now but didn’t bother with much else as she tossed the soiled linen to the corner of the room and let him lay back on the pillows.

His eyes were closed but he still smiled and pulled her close to his chest as she pulled the blanket over both of them.

“You know I love you, right?” She wasn’t sure if he was even awake to hear her words but she wanted them repeated anyways. 

Somewhere in his sleep Malroth smiled and held her closer.

Maybe this was all a part of healing.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> .....So.
> 
> What did you think?
> 
> What did you like? What did you love? What made you melt into ooey-gooey MUSH and what made you raise a brow and go "Oh!"
> 
> Let me know with a lovely comment because they fuel the creative beast!
> 
> (And feel free to find me on Twitter via @Lizzir for updates and info on new and upcoming projects!)
> 
> \- Digs


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